Why WizIQ? Because it's easy

April 18, 2012

I use WizIQ all the time. I use it for webinars, for meetings, for interviews, you name it. It works well, assuming all parties have reasonable bandwidth, and the shared whiteboarding feature in the virtual classroom satisfies the teacher’s need in me to write on a board (or, in this case, as many boards as I want to) and have a visual component accompany audio and video interactions.

A new venture = New perspectives
For the first time, though, I will be using WizIQ to actually teach courses and make money. My role with WizIQ is shifting from that of executive to evangelist and educator, allowing me to use the platform for everything from a virtual book tour (part of the reason for my shift is to give me more time to write – maybe I can actually finish this book I’m working on) to virtual consulting with schools to teacher training and professional development.

One project in particular about which I’m particularly excited is a new collaborative educational effort with Angela Maiers and Richard Byrne. We’re not quite ready for the full reveal yet, but by next week, you’ll find a new course on WizIQ where we help educators take their careers to the next level and become educational leaders. One of my favorite quotes from Mahatma Gandhi is “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” If the three of us do our jobs correctly with this course, teachers will have the tools at their disposal to be the change they want to see in education.

So why WizIQ?
So what’s special about WizIQ in all of this? Why would I choose this platform over others for both my own teaching and consulting and for my new project with Angela and Richard? Because it’s easy. It’s as simply as that. I sat down last weekend after a meeting with the two of them and built out a teaching organization and website, set up profiles, and established payment options for our course in under an hour. It will take me even less time to build out our course page when we go live this weekend and sharing course content and updates with paying students will be a trivial task. Not trivial in terms of value, but trivial in terms of effort.

I’m stretched pretty thin right now with several writing projects, a consulting business, my ongoing work with WizIQ, new shows on Edukwest, and, most importantly, my family. Everything I do needs to be as efficient and painless as possible. So for my teaching and consulting, WizIQ is my platform of choice.

I don’t want to worry about payment gateways and e-commerce, or fuss over content repositories or registration systems on my websites. I just want to do my job(s). WizIQ makes that even simpler than I realized when I was just using it internally as an employee.

And simple is good. I have more than enough in my life that’s complicated.

Chris is a full-time online teacher since then, focusing on teaching Business English to Adults. Rather than pushing the boundaries of technology, Chris seeks to simplify the online learning process by focusing on authentic human connections as a way to make online learning accessible for learners of all ages.